Anyone remember the 10 Commandments? OK, I see a buncha hands being raised... good. Now, how many of you remember what constitutes mortal sin? Ohhhh, even more hands up, great! For those who forget, the conditions are as follows;

1- the matter itself is serious or grave2- sufficient reflection3- full consent of the will

Alrighty then... now I'm gonna focus on the 7th and 8th Commandment.

7. Thou shalt not steal. Few will doubt that at least a slim majority of illegals are paid under the table. Hence, no federal tax, no state tax, no FICA... nuttin'. Isn't purposeful tax evasion considered stealing? Sure is.

Should I even bring up job stealing? And don't give me that garbage that 'the illegals are doing the jobs that Americans won't do'. Someone did those jobs before the 12 million strong silent invasion took place, right? And there are plenty of high paying jobs that are being stolen by illegals; plumbers, electricians, framers, etc. And yes, those that knowingly hired illegals and subsequently fired hardworking American citizens are just as wrong.

8. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. The Church has always taught that lying falls under the 8th Commandment. Ummm, being in this county, any country, illegally is lying, right? No amount of liberal verbal gymnastics can get around this simple, irrefutable fact.

Now with all that said, let's look again at the conditions that constitute mortal sin.

1. Breaking the immigration and taxation laws of this country pretty much constitute grave, wouldn't you say?

2. I doubt if many of the illegals were just taking a lovely stroll along the border one day and on a lark, decided to jump the fence. I also doubt that many of the illegals jumped the fence on a dare after a rough night of drinking at the Frat House.

3. I also seriously doubt if even a large minority of the illegals were forced to come here. It's a pretty safe bet that the overwhelming majority gave their full consent to illegally enter this nation.

OK, I'm ready for all the comments telling me what a racist I am. BRING IT ON, BABY!And then here's something else I posted long ago and far away;According the the USCCB website, the accolades for this gal include the following;Her understanding of Catholic social teaching has informed her position on immigration reform. “I am passionate about insuring that there is a way for undocumented people to become lawful residents and citizens,” she says. “There are 12 million-plus people living in the shadows. As Catholics, we have a responsibility to help them feel welcome and find their place.”Anyone mind if I inject the official teaching of The Catholic Church?

#2241 - Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the immigrants' duties toward their country of adoption. Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens.Gee... in other words, the official teaching of The Church is that a sovereign nation actually CAN control their own borders?? And that the same sovereign nation actually CAN expect those who came to that nation legally to actually expected to obey the law??!! What a concept!

10 Comments:

Not to mention, we are encouraging these immigrants to break national laws, and encouraging them to put their lives in peril. We encourage them to put themselves in a situation where they are taken advantage of. It is morally unconscionable that our leaders (religious and political) have encouraged and allowed this behavior. Great post, Caveman!

“Catholicism has experienced the greatest net losses as a result of affiliation changes. While nearly one-in-three Americans (31%) were raised in the Catholic faith, today fewer than one-in-four (24%) describe themselves as Catholic. These losses would have been even more pronounced were it not for the offsetting impact of immigration. The Landscape Survey finds that among the foreign-born adult population, Catholics outnumber Protestants by nearly a two-to-one margin (46% Catholic vs. 24% Protestant); among native-born Americans, on the other hand, Protestants outnumber Catholics by an even larger margin (55% Protestant vs. 21% Catholic).” (p. 6).

“...the Catholic share of the U.S. adult population has held fairly steady in recent decades, at around 25%. What this apparent stability obscures, however, is the large number of people who have left the Catholic Church. Approximately one-third of the survey respondents who say they were raised Catholic no longer describe themselves as Catholic. This means that roughly 10% of all Americans are former Catholics. These losses, however, have been partly offset by the number of people who have changed their affiliation to Catholicism (2.6% of the adult population) but more importantly by the disproportionately high number of Catholics among immigrants to the U.S.” (p. 7).

If 40 million Americans are foreign born, and 46% of them are Catholic, about 6% of the U.S. population are foreign born Catholic. So about 70% of the Church's growth is due to immigrants! (I think conversion rates are currently about 1/3 of what they used to be before Vatican II, and I think immigration has quadrupled.) And about 13% of those who loose their faith are foreign-born Hispanics (so ~1.3% of U.S. pop.; CARA), so it does look like the future of the U.S. Church can rely heavily on immigration even if at most ~22% of them become "Americanized" (i.e., secularized) and lose their faith. Although about twice as many Hispanics as non-Hispanics have abortions (CDC), still their birthrate is sightly higher (about replacement level), but let's pray that it doesn't drop through increased contraception and abortion, the evil fruits of American secularism. We desperately need more evangelization, though; Fr. Kino et al.'s efforts were great, but we cannot passively rely on them forever.

Basically, the Church in the U.S. could be about 20% bigger [68 million current U.S. catholics + 1/4 of 57 million aborted (=~14 million, since ~1/4 of Americans are Catholic) = ~82 million] were all the ~14 million Catholics not aborted. This would actually make the Catholic percentage about 27% of the U.S. population. Now that would be growth; and imagine if the evils of contraception were mentioned more frequently at masses.

Of course there's much more to the war than numbers (cf. 2 Samuel 24:1-10); they're only an indicator, not our god.

On the mark completely. We can also chalk this misunderstanding up to the fruits of Novus Ordo. After 40 years sermons about what I like to term "hippie" faith (peace, love, and sandles)our church militant is as about as effective as a one arm paper hanger. This is why Bishops and laity in general believe the moral thing to do is Amnesty.

When in reality Amnesty would be the equivalent of giving free heroine to an addict.

I think the bishops should be asked about the immigration policy of Vatican city. What is the position of the Vatican on illigal immigrants? So lets compare NY Metro with the Vatican.

New York City is huge, with a 2009 metropolitan-area population of 19,648,000, living on 1,248 square miles or about 16,000 per sq mile.Vatican City, meanwhile, with approximately 1,000 full-time residents10 sharing 108.7 acres, has a population density of just 5,900 per square mile - a third that of New York City.

So it seems like the Vatican could take in a whole lot more illegal immigrants. I would also suspect that the house that most bishops live in could support a ton of illegals. Wonder how many are living with Mahoney. And the far left Al Gore just bought a huge house for over $8M with a huge pool which should be able to support hundreds of illegals. The pool could make a nice place for them to bath.

My blood has been boiling since the high and mighty Abp. Mahoney made his statement about the immigration law in Arizona. I live in Northeast Missouri--not much of an illegal alien problem here in my parishes, but I really have a problem with people who are coming across the borders with intent of committing a crime and then continuing their criminal behavior once they get here. We've got to do something to stop it--make employers of illegals pay big fines, do the profiling and send these folks home, come up with a respectable guest worker program and don't be afraid to put the National Guard on the borders until this is done. All the tears that the libs shed over the plight of the illegals would never have been shed over my great-grandparents coming in from Germany--they made their own way, legally--that's the American way.

Do you read the "Catholic Family News?"My stomach fell when I read of what goes on during the Assissi III convention, when all types of religions come together, with our Pope sitting there, while Strange gods are invoked inside catholic Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels Rome.All of these leaders from false religions on equal footing with our Pope. There were Islamics, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, sikhism, Baha'ism, Confucianism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Shintoism, Mandeism, and many traditional religions such as those found in Africa. The commingling of "christian representation runs counter to the true doctrine of the Catholic Church, as the one and only Church of Christ. It also defies the words of Pope Pius XI, who warned in his 1928 encyclical "Mortalium Animos" against Ecumenism that such pan-Christian activity "gives countenance to a false Christianity, quite alien to the one Church of Christ". This conference was started by John Paul II, and for any leader of the Catholic Church to sit there and listen to anyone invoke their false gods like those of The Hindu Acharya Shri Shrivatsa Goswami uttering pantheisticprayers in a Catholic Basilica with the leader of our Catholic Church sitting there, means that the whole Catholic Church is in agreement with what is being said. Whatever JPII thought he was doing, is against our Catholic Doctrines, and should be ended immediately. I do not care what the intent was, political or otherwise it is wrong, and according to the article in the Catholic Family News, it should not be accepted. A great many of those of the religions represented at this conference, have not spoken out one bit of the killings going on in their countries, particularly those of the Islamic faith. This is why it is up to us, to try to retain the original Catholic doctrines, as taught for over 2000 years. Now you can see why the Apostasy has taken hold of our Church, and the acceptance of Homosexuals is becoming widespread throughout our country and religion. God have mercy, and save us! Dominus Vobiscum